Sue Halpern
@suehalpernVTSue Halpern writes about politics, technology, and their intersection. She is the author of several books, including the best-selling “A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home” and “Four Wings and a Prayer,” which was made into an Emmy-nominated film. She was a columnist for Mother Jones, Ms., and Smithsonian Magazine, and has written for the Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and The New Republic, as well as for The New York Review of Books. Halpern founded and edited NYRBLit, the electronic-publishing imprint of New York Review Books. Halpern is a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, where she directs the program in narrative journalism. She has been the recipient of Guggenheim and Echoing Green Fellowships, and earned a doctorate in political theory from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.
All Work
- Annals of Technology
The Neuroscience of Picking a Presidential Candidate
How new technology is allowing campaigns to tap into the subconscious thoughts and feelings of potential voters.
February 3, 2020
- Annals of Technology
Should the U.S. Expect an Iranian Cyberattack?
Cyber weapons do not have to be cutting edge to lacerate a community, a company, or a country.
January 6, 2020
- News Desk
How Crystal Mason Became the Face of Voter Suppression in America
The paradox, as her lawyers have pointed out, is that Mason was charged with voting illegally even though she did not actually vote.
December 18, 2019
- Annals of Technology
The One-Traffic-Light Town with Some of the Fastest Internet in the U.S.
The economic potential of connecting rural America to broadband has become a popular talking point on the campaign trail. In one Kentucky community, it’s already a way of life.
December 3, 2019
- Annals of Technology
The Problem of Political Advertising on Social Media
When taken to task for spreading hateful, distorted, and false information, Mark Zuckerberg claims that the social network is a neutral platform, unmoored from the content it carries.
October 24, 2019
- Annals of Technology
The Wild West of Online Political Operatives
As campaigns become increasingly digital, the tools they use to harvest and disseminate data face threats from hackers whose goals can range from benign mischief to the undermining of democracy itself.
October 1, 2019
- News Desk
Filling the Empty Seats at the F.E.C. Won’t Fix America’s Corrupt Elections
In the tug-of-war between lawfulness and corruption, a functioning F.E.C. has been losing, hand over fist, to the pull of anti-democratic forces for more than a decade.
August 29, 2019
- Annals of Technology
A Summer Camp for the Next Generation of N.S.A. Agents
The National Security Agency hopes that its GenCyber camps inspire young people to pursue work in cybersecurity, a field in which three hundred thousand jobs remain unfilled in the U.S. alone.
August 15, 2019
- Annals of Technology
Facebook’s Audacious Pitch for a Global Cryptocurrency
Libra promises a frictionless way for the unbanked people “who need it most” to move money across the world, but will it simply consolidate the power of the already powerful?
July 30, 2019
- Annals of Technology
How Cyber Weapons Are Changing the Landscape of Modern Warfare
Unlike conventional weapons, cyber weapons lend themselves to plausible deniability. How do you levy a threat when it’s not clear where an attack is coming from or who is responsible?
July 18, 2019
